Category: Outlets – Fast Company
How Bumble’s Clever Design Helped the App Go Public
Bumble Hits 100 Million Users
FAST COMPANY – July 16 – Bumble is also announcing a major reorganization and rebranding that will make the company the new overseer of its sibling dating app, Badoo. Until now, the two apps had been under the umbrella of the holding company MagicLab. But that company is being renamed Bumble. Bumble is bringing on a new president, Tariq Shaukat, previously president of industry products and solutions at Google Cloud. Bumble also announced a new board of directors. Led by chairwoman Ann Mather, the former CFO of Pixar Studios, the Bumble board also includes Pamela Thomas-Graham, the author and former CEO of CNBC; Elisa Steele, the chairwoman of Cornerstone; and Matthew Bromberg, COO of Zynga. Bumble and Badoo have a base of 600M users. CEO Wolfe Herd now oversees ~750 employees in Austin, London, and Moscow.
Tinder: The Right Chemistry Sparks Innovation
FAST COMPANY – Mar 17 – Swipe Night, the app's interactive post-apocalyptic adventure, is a good way to delight members. Launched in October 2019, members must make a series of choices in limited time, within the context of the story. Swipe Night helped Tinder secure a place on Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies list. And such creativity isn't an accident. At the heart of Tinder's culture are small, nimble teams comprised of passionate people who work well together, says Tinder CEO Elie Seidman. While the "Z team," hunts for new features and events to attract 18- to 25-year-old members of Generation Z, another team focuses on how to build trust and safety. In the product development world, the concept of the minimum viable product (MVP) – a product with just enough features to satisfy customers – is well-known. But at Tinder, the focus is on the "minimum loveable product," or MLP. In addition to being lean and functional, the product or innovation must also be something that customers will love.
Inside Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd’s Mission to Build the “Female Internet”
FAST COMPANY – Sep 8 – Whitney Wolfe Herd wants to "change thousands of years of behavior" between men and women. "We're not one of our competitors that's just trying to hook people up," she says. Bumble claims ~66M users in 150 countries and reportedly anticipates $300M in 2019 revenue. There are rumors that it is eyeing an IPO or accepting a significant capital infusion from a private-equity firm. Bumble's culture is reinforced by the many friends and former sorority sisters that Wolfe Herd recruited to the company, including head of brand Alex Williamson, VP of marketing Chelsea Cain Maclin, chief creative marketing officer Samantha Fulgham, and chief of staff Caroline Ellis Roche. In late 2017, the Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra was sitting next to Wolfe Herd at the launch party for Bumble Bizz. After listening to Wolfe Herd speak, Chopra approached her to say: India needs this. Bumble also needs India (and other international markets), where the opportunity for growth is enormous. So far, Bumble is gaining traction in India – more than a million people signed up in the first four months – but it's still hitting barriers. The solution may be to lean more heavily on Bizz, as well as BFF.
Match.com Offers Dating Coaches to Its Subscribers
FAST COMPANY – Aug 26 – Introduced in New York City in May, the AskMatch dating coaching service is now available in 18 states and Washington, D.C., with plans to expand to all U.S. subscribers by January 2020. The coaching – typically over the phone – is included in Match's standard subscription. "We get people who say, 'I need help flirting. I forgot how to flirt,'" says Katie Wilson, a veteran dating coach who came to Match in Dec 2018 to build its team. Wilson spent four and a half years as a manager and director at matchmaking company Three Day Rule. The L.A.-based boutique service has had a partnership with Match since 2014, aimed at users who want to get personalized matchmaking. Three Day Rule coaches will appear in tips videos for AskMatch.
Dating Apps Can Serve as Professional Networking Platforms
FAST COMPANY – Aug 15 – Platforms that are meant for social connection could also help your professional advancement, says Jeff Steen, special projects editor for FitSmallBusiness.com. FitSmallBusiness.com made a list of the most surprising apps users can use for business networking, which included Reddit, Goodreads, AncestryDNA and dating apps like Hinge, Bumble and Tinder. With a dating apps, there can be a natural progression in a conversation to users' career. "''What do you do?' is usually one of the first questions people ask when getting to know someone," says Steen. "This can overlap into professional conversations, even if no romantic interest is established."
Grindr and Romeo Can Expose User Locations
FAST COMPANY – Aug 8 – Researchers from the cyber-security company Pen Test Partners found that Grindr, Recon, and Romeo apps allow users to share their general location by displaying their distance from each other. Anyone with basic computing skills could use that information to determine another user's exact location using a method known as trilateration. The researchers created a tool that faked their own location and did all the trilateration calculations automatically, in bulk, allowing them to generate maps of precise user locations for thousands of individuals at a time.
by Michael Grothaus
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Bumble’s Chief Brand Officer Explains How to Build a Successful Brand
FAST COMPANY – July 24 – Alex Williamson, Bumble's chief brand officer, helped create the voice of the dating and networking app. She reveals her best advice for how to successfully brand your company.
- think of your brand as a person/character and let that person/character have a strong voice
- consider your mistake as a learning path
- you have to be willing to move fast and change your directions without compromising your mission
- believe in what you are building
- constantly check in with your brand
Pregnancy Is Making Bumble CEO Rethink Parental Work Policies
FAST COMPANY – June 14 – Whitney Wolfe Herd has recently announced her pregnancy. She now wants to think about work-life balance for parents beyond just maternity or paternity leave. "I've always wanted parents to prioritize their children's well-being alongside their job. So I never wanted them to feel like they have to choose one or the other. I don't think that's a fair position to be in," she said. Her employees are encouraged to work as flexibly as they need to. Employees expecting children are given a four-month, paid leave, and new parents receive a $1K bonus to offset childcare costs. Bumble also provides reimbursements for breast milk home delivery service for breastfeeding mothers who are traveling, and covers any costs incurred by Maven, an app that provides video calls, counseling, nutrition services, and other services for parents and parents-to-be. Bumble's headquarters also has a mothers' room stocked with snacks and tea. She is planning on building a childcare space where employees can reserve to have a caretaker watch their child while they work.